There are few things as demoralizing as working in a dirty environment. Please pick up your garbage when you leave the lab and make sure that you dump it in the garbage, not the recycling bin. Many times, I have to pick up snotty kleenex, gum wrappers, and unsanitary straws from the workstations. It's gross! Also, please don't put your chewed gum underneath the desks or under the seats of the chairs. It spreads germs and is completely disgusting. If you see someone else littering or being a slob, try asking them to put their stuff in the garbage. This is good practice for becoming assertive at work. After all, you don't want to have to live in their mess during the many hours a day that you're in class.
You have to work with the same PDHT students for three years. It makes sense to get along with everyone. Not only that, it's also good practice for the workplace, where you will have to get along with many different personalities from many different cultures. Your boss might be the most difficult person to get along with... you will need to learn how to cope pleasantly with that type of person, too. Having different teachers with extremely different personalities gives you practice relating to people in positions of ‘authority'. Remember that your fellow students might not be your favourite kind of people, but it will do your career good to be able to get along well with everyone. People who have ‘charm' and personality get promotions—more often than people who get high marks in school!
There's a saying, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty." Why should you? Well, there's really no reason apart from treating people the way you would like to be treated. If you're religious, you might try to be nice because God is watching. If you don't have that faith, why should you try to be nice to anyone? Here's my reason: If everyone started to be kind to everyone else, we could end war and virtually eliminate unhappiness. It has to start somewhere, so it might as well start with you. Try going out of your way to be nice to someone, especially someone who needs a boost. You'll feel good about it, and so will they. The internet is a good example of a caring community that can degenerate so easily into locker-room talk, insults, and racism. Don't let the net become another ‘inner city'. Use it to do good and make friendships with other people of different races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations, and interests than your own.